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Business & Management

Program Overview

Leadership, Strategy and Tools for 21st Century Challenges

Today’s leaders face one certainty: they are operating in an environment of uncertainty. Consumption is increasing. Resources are dwindling. Delivering stakeholder value is an imperative, but so is factoring in the global challenges we collectively face. Every decision has the potential to enhance – or compromise – the well-being and security of future generations.

That’s a lot of responsibility.

And it’s why Stanford recognizes sustainability as an essential component of effective leadership in the 21st century. Stanford’s new curriculum, Leadership for Sustainability, unpacks the core mindsets, knowledge and skills leaders need to promote sustainability and resilience in today’s complex environment.

Program

Enroll in Stanford’s 2.5 day program on Leadership for Sustainability and learn the critical skills you’ll need to lead change that can deliver long-term results.

You’ll learn to:

Navigate Complexity: Understand and learn strategies for identifying both risks and opportunities in today’s global environment.

Shift Perspective: Evolve decision-making processes to include environmental, social and economic considerations.

Measure impact across a variety of dimensions that go beyond financial performance

Fee applies.

Who Should Enroll

Decision makers in any industry who understand that today’s global challenges require new skills and ways of thinking.Executives who understand that sustainability is becoming a universal business language. Already fluent? Ready to start learning? The only prerequisite is the desire to lead change.Leaders who recognize the business and moral imperative to make sustainability an intrinsic part of their organization.

Program tuition: $5,500

Tuition includes all course materials, three breakfasts, two lunches and receptions with participants and faculty.

Individual enrollments

$4,500 per person, if registered by July 15, 2017$5,500 per personRegistration opens April 15th. Early bird registration ends July 15th.

Group enrollments (teams of 3 or more)

Additional discounts may be available for groups, contact us for more information.Program to be held on September 11-13th on Stanford campus.

Overview

Do you have what it takes to inspire people to practice—rather than just talk about—innovation? Professor Bob Sutton digs into the differences between leading innovation and managing routine work, reviews the hallmarks of skilled leaders with a special focus on staying in tune with the people you lead. The course features interviews with three star innovators: Mauria Finley, experienced corporate executive at large firms including Netscape and eBay and founder of Citrus Lane; Perry Klebhan, former CEO, inventor of the modern snowshoe, and director of executive education at the Stanford d.school; and Diego Rodriguez, partner at IDEO, author of the renowned Metacool blog, and cofounder of the Stanford d.school.

Learn How To:

Embrace "failure" and learn from it"

Learn the differences between routine and innovative work, the importance of having a place to fail, and why killing good ideas is sometimes necessary.

Manage creativity and innovation

Gain an understanding of creative processes, and understand why creative work must be managed differently.

Build and maintain a talented, motivated team

Learn about building and leading a creative team. Consider how self-fulfilling prophecies, money as a motivator, intrinsic rewards, stand-up meetings, and fostering constructive conflict can improve or hinder team performance.

Develop the skills of an in-tune leader

Reconsider traditional notions of leadership, and discover the leader's role in being assertive, celebrating small wins, and supporting team members.

Close the knowing-doing gap

Explore the traps that often prohibit implementation

Instructor

Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford UniversityResources

Course Description

This course will teach marketers how to use data to make better business decisions. Designed specifically for marketing and sales professionals without math, statistical, or analytic backgrounds, the course will focus on the types of data that marketers are most confronted with: social media, mobile applications, paid media, website analytics, and customer profiling data. By breaking down seemingly complex topics using easy-to-understand concepts and visualization techniques, students will learn how to collect, analyze, visualize, and even make predictions using data. These skills, when taken together, enable students to develop a core set of skills that can be used in virtually any marketing situation, whether creating a measurement strategy or identifying and targeting new customers. Course material is presented using online videos and supplemented with additional instructional how-to videos to help students learn the mechanics of dealing with data. Take-home assignments will aid in developing each student’s grasp of particular topics. By the end of the course, students will have learned how to collect, analyze, interpret, and visualize data as part of their ongoing decision-making process.

Students need a basic understanding of Microsoft Excel, which will be used outside of the weekly class sessions. A version of Microsoft Excel 2013 or newer is required. No prior technical or statistical background is necessary.

Instructor

Angel Evan, Customer Insights and Analytics Consultant

Angel Evan has nearly twenty years of digital marketing experience, and his approach stems from joint studies in data mining and graphic design. He specializes in simplifying complex topics using jargon-free language and visual teaching methods.Textbooks for this course:

There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

From 40,000-year-old prehistoric cave paintings to the latest digital emoji symbols on our phones, making visual marks—drawing—has been a fundamental form of human communication, expression, and creativity. As children, we have an innate ability to access creativity and to express ourselves through drawing, but as we get older, we are trained to judge what we do as either “bad” or “good” (usually “bad”) and to leave the making of art to the “experts.” Many people find themselves cut off not only from drawing but also from their own creativity. This course is designed to reignite a sense of creative experimentation and exploration through drawing.

The core component of the course will be short daily drawing prompts that can be responded to anywhere with little more than a pencil and a small sketchbook. Unlike a studio class, the focus of this course is not about learning to draw or making an expertly rendered piece of art; rather, it is about the process of drawing and how it can support creativity in our lives. At first, we will focus on jumpstarting our creativity, tapping into our imaginations, and circumventing the critical tendencies that can inhibit us. Later, we will experiment with different ways to make marks, observing the world around (and within) us and exploring the inventive possibilities of drawing. By the end of the course, students will have the tools and confidence necessary to maintain their own creative drawing practice.

This course is designed for beginners, those with limited drawing experience, or people who want to build a creative outlet into their daily lives. Students must purchase their own art supplies for this course and can expect to spend an additional $15–$25 on these materials.

This course may not be taken for a Letter Grade.

This is an online course. Because of the higher enrollment compared with a traditional on-campus art studio course, students will not receive instructor feedback on daily drawing posts. Students may request light instructor feedback on two drawings during the course. The course also includes instructional videos, interactive exercises, and discussion with fellow students, as well as optional online videoconferencing sessions.

Instructors

Trevor Tubelle, Artist

Trevor Tubelle is a San Francisco–based interdisciplinary artist working with hybrid forms of drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and performance. He has taught at Stanford Arts Institute (Honors in the Arts program), UC Santa Cruz, and elsewhere. His work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tubelle received an MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute.Textbooks for this course:

There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.

Course Description

The concept of design innovation applies as much to our own personal growth and leadership as to anything else in our lives. This course teaches how each of us can become more aware of design innovation in our lives, how design innovation works, and most importantly, how it applies to all of us. It explores such questions as: Where is our place in the world, what is my personal vision of change, and how do I safely test incarnations of myself along the way? As the course progresses, we will learn how to take control and (re-) design our own lives through innovative measures. Design can truly be at the heart of refashioning our future lives in a chaotic world and, as importantly, of finding well-being and reclaiming a rich human experience.

Using a combination of tools from the Foresight Framework and Stanford’s design community, this course will provide a learning laboratory for your own self-reflection and experimentation in a group setting. Through a combination of short videos, readings, demonstrations, field work, and open forums with faculty, plus personal feedback, you will gain fast practice in understanding yourself as a design innovation.

This course may not be taken for a Letter Grade.

This is the third in a sequence of three courses on design innovation. In the Fall, students explored designing future solutions within a business context; in the Spring, students designed solutions in the context of global teams; and in the Summer, students will focus on design innovation in the context of personal leadership and growth. While these courses build upon one another, each course can be taken independently as well.

Instructors

Michael Shanks, Professor of Classics; Professor of Archaeology; Senior Faculty, Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Science, Technology and Society, Urban Studies, and the Center for Design Research, School of Engineering, Stanford

Michael Shanks is an archaeologist and specialist in long-term humanistic views of design and innovation. He has directed Stanford Humanities Lab and the Revs Program, connecting automotive heritage with contemporary car design. While he pursues fieldwork into the Roman borders of the Netherlands, he also serves on the Mayor of Rotterdam’s Advisory Board and works with many companies, including Airbus, Severstal, Thales Group, Michelin, Daimler Chrysler, and SAP, on developing cultures of innovation.

Tamara Carleton, CEO and Founder, Innovation Leadership Board

Tamara Carleton helps organizations to create vision-led, radical innovations. She works closely with the Foresight and Innovation program at Stanford, where she explores how the world’s most innovative companies create technology visions and take action. She received a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford.

Overview

Open any news site and you’re bound to find a recent story about a devastating cyber security attack. However, since many senior level managers do not understand the technical aspects of cyber security, they often allocate an insufficient amount of resources necessary to mitigate risk.

In this course, you’ll learn how to explain to all levels of management, including both technical and non-technical executive leadership, why cyber security must be a priority. You’ll learn how to educate and influence senior management so that security and risk mitigation becomes a primary component of corporate strategy.

Enrollment: Application and Fee Apply.

You Will Learn

Important Questions and Principles for Board Engagement

Black-Box and White-Box Security Assessments and Metrics

Prioritization of Vulnerabilities

Breach Preparation

Risk Assessments

Cyber Insurance

Recommended

An equivalent of a BS in Computer Science and a background in security.

Overview

Energy Storage has become a crucial factor in modern society, due to climate change and global sustainability. From portable electronics to large scale power grids, this course examines the wide range of applications for both grid electricity storage and batteries, two examples of energy technologies that are important in everyday life as well as their potential applications in future devices.

In this class you will learn about the latest innovations and research in energy storage. You will explore the principals of batteries as well as their real and potential applications in a variety of products. Finally, you will be given an overview of each method of grid electricity storage and their possible technological applications.

Course Description

Move beyond theory and dive into hands-on practice in the art of innovation. Tackle innovation challenges from start to finish and gain an in-depth understanding of these key tenets of design thinking and how to incorporate them into your work. Empathize with your customer, synthesize your learnings, and rapidly prototype and test your new ideas. Master techniques for gaining empathy with customers and immediately put them to use in a series of hands on exercises that guide you from synthesis to prototyping and testing.

The Course

Designing Organizations for Creativity and Innovation

This course focuses on a framework for thinking about the organizational ecosystem, and how we can use a human-centered design process to effectively diagnose the roots of very common organizational problems (e.g., lack of coordination and trust between units, shortage of time for creative thinking, loss of top talent).

In this LEAD Preview course, you will

Investigate facets of organizations that underpin an organization's culture, what a strong organizational culture really means, and how to build it

Work with a partner to visually depict an organization's culture

Compare and contrast the organizational cultures of two companies to gain insight into how an organizational culture can be built and maintained, and how organizational cultures function

The full Designing Organizations for Creativity and Innovation course in the LEAD Certificate studies the interplay among formal structure, routines, informal networks, and culture in shaping organizational performance, change, innovation, and employee engagement.

What to expect

Begin with a virtual live kickoff session hosted by LEAD Course Facilitator & MBA Alum, Jonathan Daves on March 29, 2017 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time

Join a virtual live interactive session led by Professor Sarah Soule on April 11, 2017 at 4:00 PM Pacific Time

About the LEAD Certificate Program

This Preview is exclusively from the Stanford LEAD Certificate in Corporate Innovation, an immersive online program taught by tenured GSB faculty. The program is designed to be completed in one year and comprises 8 courses, including 3 required foundation courses and 5 electives of your choice. Upon completion of all 8 courses, 24 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and a Stanford GSB Certificate are awarded.

Learn at your own pace, on your own turf with video lectures, live virtual events, and assignments

Build an exclusive network of professionals from around the globe who are committed to driving change in their organizations

Enrollment in the LEAD Certificate program is limited and tuition is $16,000. There is no fee to apply and no GMAT is required.

The Instructor

Sarah Soule

Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior

Sarah A. Soule is the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business. Her major areas of interest are organizational theory, social movements, and political sociology. She has written two recent books, the first with Cambridge University Press, entitled Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility, and the second with Norton, called A Primer on Social Movements. She is the series editor for the Cambridge University Press Contentious Politics series. She is a member of the founding team of the new journal, Sociological Science, an open access journal that is disrupting academic publishing. She has served on a number of boards of non-profit organizations, is currently a member Board of Advisors to the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the Stanford d.school) Fellowship program, and is currently serving on the faculty advisory board to the Stanford Center for the Advancement of Women's Leadership. She has taught a number of courses with the Stanford d.school, and is the Faculty Director for the Executive Program on Social Entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Business. She has served as a judge for the Center for Social Innovation Fellowship program, and for the Tech Awards (Tech Museum of Innovation).

Course Description

Presentations are ubiquitous. From board rooms to chat rooms, we all need to present our ideas and ourselves frequently. Estimates suggest that there are 40 million presentations a day in the United States. Yet many presenters feel uneasy about speaking in front of others. Additionally, speakers can struggle with making their presentations authentic, engaging, and memorable. This online course will provide a hands-on, practical introduction to immediately applicable techniques that will help you prepare and deliver engaging, participative, and impactful in-person and online presentations. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, group activities, and speechmaking, you will learn techniques to confidently deliver presentations, create content that invites engagement, and facilitate speaker/audience interactions that invite collaboration without losing control. Students will develop, deliver, and evaluate a presentation that is meaningful for them. With these presenting skills, you will be able to authentically deliver a compelling presentation tailored to your audience’s needs.

Matt Abrahams, Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Matt Abrahams is an educator and coach who has published research articles on cognitive planning, persuasion, and interpersonal communication. He is the author of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out, and a co-founder and principal at Bold Echo Communication Solutions. He received an MA in communication from UC Davis.